AS WE send best wishes to retiring North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom, we must reflect on his claims of success.

According to 2007 UK Government figures, North Wales Police issued more speeding fines per head of population than anywhere else in the UK, soaring eight-fold in less than a decade.

However the average number of road deaths had flat lined since 2001 – the last year before the Arrive Alive camera partnership.

In its own December 2008 Management Information Bulletin, North Wales Police stated: “The number of people killed or seriously injured in Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) has increased 28.7% year on year.”

The Home Office named North Wales as one of the police forces that had undercounted serious violent crime.

The force blamed this on a change in Home Office guidance, but 25 forces had still managed to get it right.

Responding to Mr. Brunstrom’s call for the decriminalisation of drugs, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers stated: “Moving to total legalisation would, in our view, greatly exacerbate the harm to people in this country, not reduce it.”

The 2008 Police Federation Survey of North Wales Police officers found that two thirds disagreed that the quality of service to the public had improved and over half disagreed that North Wales Police was a transparent and fair organisation.

The force claimed that “the report is based upon a minority sample”, when it was in fact based on a highly representative sample of 500 Officers, one third of all ranks up to Chief Inspector.